Celebrities Slated for Commerce Parade

This city will sponsor a parade and festival Sunday celebrating Veteran’s Day and the city’s silver anniversary.

The parade will begin at 1 p.m. at Steven’s Steakhouse on Atlantic Boulevard at Steven’s Place, and proceed east on Washington Boulevard to Commerce Way, then north on Harbor Street ending at Rosewood Park.

The grand marshal will be actress Carmen Zapata. Other parade celebrities will be Olympian boxer Paul Gonzales, and radio personality and former Los Angeles Laker Tommy Hawkins.

World War II veteran Manuel R. Zabala, who received the Distinguished Service Cross, and his cousin, Manuel Zabala Morales, who was awarded the Silver Star in World War II, also will ride in the parade. The veterans grew up in Barrio Simons, an old neighborhood in what is now Commerce and Montebello.

The parade will include marching bands, equestrian units, dance troupes, clowns and floats. Antique fighter airplanes will fly overhead, opening the parade, according Cheryl Bardowell, news media specialist. The festival at Rosewood Park, 5600 Harbor St., will feature food, games and exhibit booths.

Opening ceremonies will include an address by former prisoner of war Col. Jerry D. Driscoll, who was shot down and captured over North Vietnam in April, 1966, and released in 1973, Bardowell said.

The ceremonies will end with the release of white doves, as a symbol of peace, and of balloons, to mark the city’s anniversary, she said.

In addition, city officials will seal a time capsule containing memorabilia from the city’s 25th anniversary and a recording of Driscoll’s speech. The time capsule will be buried at Veteran’s Park, 6364 Zindell St., where the formal unveiling of a new sign for that park will be held Monday.

After the unveiling, a city bus will be provided for Commerce residents wishing to tour the Riverside National Cemetery, location of the half-scale replica of the Veterans’ Memorial Wall erected in Washington, D.C.